KENYA BARRIS, CREATOR OF ABC’s BLACK-ISH; AMANDA LIPITZ, DIRECTOR OF STEP; AND TRAILBLAZERS LIZ ROBBINS OF LIZ ROBBINS ASSOCIATES AND JOANNE PODELL OF CUSHMAN WAKEFIELD, TO BE HONORED BY THE YOUNG WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP NETWORK (YWLN) FOUNDED BY ANN TISCH

The Young Women’s Leadership Network (YWLN), founded by public education reformer and advocate Ann Tisch, will celebrate a stellar line-up of distinguished individuals at its (Em)Power Breakfast on October 10, 2017 at 8 a.m. at Cipriani on 42nd Street.

“We are thrilled to celebrate such distinguished honorees and applaud their commitment to educational access and young women’s leadership development,” said YWLN Executive Director Jemina Bernard.

More than twenty years ago, in 1996, The Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem made history as the first single-sex public school to open in the United States in more than 30 years. Since its inception, YWLN has established five Young Women’s Leadership Schools in New York City and has 13 affiliate schools around the country. “Through our network of 18 schools, we serve more than 8,500 girls nationwide, many of whom will be the first in their family to attend college,” added Bernard.

In a demonstration of YWLN’s successful education model, an independent evaluation found that students of The Young Women’s Leadership Schools enroll in college at twice the rate of their peers and achieve four-year college degrees at four times the rate. Its academically rigorous program pairs the best practices of all-girls education without outstanding leadership opportunities.

Proceeds from the event, which will be attended by nearly 700 guests, will support YWLN’s efforts to offer girls in public schools a first rate education to help them achieve their college-going dreams.

To learn more about YWLN’s 20-year history of changing lives and changing public education, visit our timeline at http://www.ywln.org/history.